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With more than 340,000 living alumni, the University of South Carolina has stories to tell, and Carolinian is here to tell them. From celebrated artists, scientists and business leaders to everyday alumni who embody the spirit of Carolina, this is our story — and this is your magazine.

Carolinian is published three times a year and distributed to members of the USC Alumni Association. Select features from the print edition can be found here, alongside web-exclusive stories, videos and interviews that celebrate our successes, revisit our history and remind us what it means to be a Carolinian. Forever to thee!

Momentum Shift

In just two seasons, Head Football Coach Shane Beamer has changed the direction of USC’s football program. Entering his third year, fans are excited, his players are pumped, and his staff is ready to win.

But Coach Beamer isn’t the only winner in the fall issue of Carolinian. Poet and professor Ray McManus is winning major awards and inspiring students. Sara Barber is fighting for change as executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The alumni owners and patrons of All Good Books are quickly turning their new independent bookstore into a literary hub just blocks from the USC campus.

Meet Coach Beamer
Cover of the Carolinian magazine featuring Shane Beamer.
Ray McManus converses with Carolinian in a restaurant over a beer.

College Material

No one expected Ray McManus to go to college. Three USC degrees later, he’s a professor of English at USC Sumter and a celebrated poet with three books under his belt.

Meet Ray McManus

Reigning Supreme

After 46 years in the business, Bojangles knows fried chicken. Alumna Stacey McCray, the company’s vice president of communications, knows how to promote it.

Meet Stacey McCray

Stacey McCray smiles for the camera standing in front of a Bojangles.
A photo of the clock tower at the newly open Campus Village.

Campus Village Time

This fall, USC’s highly anticipated Campus Village community opens on campus’ south end. With on-site dining, retail, academic support spaces, shuttle service and more than 1,800 new beds, the modern, four-building living-learning complex heralds a new day at the university and a new era of student life.

Hope & Healing

As executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, alumna Sara Barber advocates for long-term change.

Meet Sara Barber
A portrait of Sara Barber with the SC Statehouse in the background.
USC affiliates sit around a large table at All Good Books with books in hand.

It’s All Good

Columbia lacked an independent bookstore for years. The plot thickened when All Good Books opened in Five Points — and USC is a book part of the story.

Good Vibes 

Web Extra

Catching Up with Blue Sky

Blue Sky begins a conversation about his six-decade career as an artist this way: “I should have been an engineer.” He swears he’s not joking. But think what Columbia would have lost if Blue Sky had not filled the public arena with color and whimsy and bold­ness and giant pieces of art that have become Capital City landmarks.

Tunnelvision Revisted
Columbia artist Blue Sky paints through challenges, brings beauty to blank spaces.

Carolinian Sport

This fall, readers of Carolinian magazine received a special supplement celebrating our student athletes, past and present, our coaches and our athletic staff. Click on the links below for a taste of Carolinian Sport.

Inside Carolina

South Caroliniana Library reopens; Gamecock alumni at Riverbanks Zoo

Designed by Robert Mills, a South Carolina native and the country’s first federal architect, the South Caroliniana Library opened in 1840 as the first freestanding academic library in the United States. Now, after a $10 million renovation and nearly a decade, the most iconic building on campus is reopening. Also: We meet USC alumni with degrees ranging from marine science to public relations who are making an impact at the state’s top tourist attraction, Riverbanks Zoo & Garden.

Things move quickly at the University of South Carolina, and it can be hard to keep up. Inside Carolina, the university’s monthly email for alumni, delivers timely profiles, video stories and the latest news about your alma mater directly to your inbox 12 times a year.

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south caroliniana library with four columns and trees in the foreground

Join the Alumni Association

While you’re a student for a short time, you’re a Gamecock for a lifetime. Join the alumni association to connect with a strong network of Gamecocks and give back to our beloved university. Our members enable us to engage more students, host more alumni events and programs, and build the brand of South Carolina around the world.

USC ALUMNI
Three alumni wearing Carolina gear at a tailgate with Williams-Brice Stadium behind them.
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